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Purchasing involves the procurement of goods and services that meet community needs at the lowest possible cost consistent with the quality needed for the proper operation of the various departments. In general, purchases should be handled in a manner that creates the greatest ultimate value per dollar expended.
The Purchasing Department is responsible for assisting with purchasing for the College by providing the community with "best procurement practice" guidelines; maintaining College procurement systems, and communicating the purchasing policies and procedures of the College. Operating within the guidelines described in this document, authorized department representatives may initiate purchases with funds available in their approved budgets.
1. Conduct all purchasing in accordance with College policy as outlined in this guide and the National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP) Code of Ethics.
2. Stimulate competitive bidding and provide interested vendors with an opportunity to offer their products to the College.
3. Strive to maintain strong and enduring relationships with vendors of proven ability and desire to meet our needs. To accomplish this, our purchasing activities will be conducted so that vendors will value our business and make every effort to furnish our requirements on the basis of quality, service and price.
4. All bidders must be afforded equal opportunities to quote and are to compete on equal terms.
5. Employees must not become obligated to any supplier. No member of the staff of the Purchasing Department or College employee shall receive any benefit or profit from any contract or purchase made by the College.
6. The Purchasing Department shall not knowingly issue a purchase order when there is evidence of a conflict of interest.
7. There must be funds available in the departmental budget before considering any purchase.
8. Employees are not allowed to make purchases with College funds for personal use.
Methods of Procurement
- Carleton Purchasing Card (VISA) – employees authorized to purchase on behalf of the college are issued a Carleton Purchasing Card to create an efficient and convenient method of procurement and payment. This is the primary method of procurement and payment.
- Supplier Invoice Request (SIR) – payment may be authorized directly from the vendor invoice for goods and/or services received.
- Create Requisition – used to obtain a purchase order through WorkDay. Purchase orders should be used for the purchase of services that need contract terms and conditions that are attached to a purchase order. Purchase orders are required for all construction contracts and large equipment (over $10,000).
Use preferred vendors whenever possible see Vendor Contracts for additional information.
Only individuals with purchasing authority may initiate purchases on behalf of the College. Refer to the Purchasing Authorization Guide for details.
Purchasing Card
College employees may be granted the privilege of using a Carleton Purchasing Card to make business-related purchases. Cardholders are required to retain original detailed receipts, reconcile transactions monthly, manage account codes, and provide the business purpose of each transaction. New cardholders are required to complete the following forms:
Purchasing Card Application
Purchasing Card AgreementAuthorized cardholders must complete training and sign the cardholder agreement, abiding by the code of ethics, anti-kickback clause and conflict of interest statement.
Cardholder Responsibilities
The cardholder agreement stipulates that the cardholder:
- has attended the required purchasing card training
- is aware of and understands card policies and procedures
- is held accountable for all transactions made using his or her card(s), including those cards delegated to other employees or graduate students
- is responsible for the timely reconcilement of his or her card(s)
- is responsible for returning his or her card(s) upon termination, suspension or leave of absence
- may not purchase any personal items with his or her card
- may not transfer his or her physical card(s) or card responsibility to any other individual.
- should use preferred suppliers if at all possible for negotiated purchases, using good judgment for purchases outside of the card process
- is responsible for reporting lost or stolen cards immediately to Wells Fargo.
Overview of the Card Program
Using a Carleton purchasing card closely resembles using one's personal credit card, except that use is restricted to business-related purchases. Each cardholder is required to keep the card secure and is encouraged to use it for every possible college-related purchase.
Each purchasing card has been set with spending limits, account distribution and account parameters. Transactions on each card default to a specified department number which can be modified upon request. Cardholders are responsible for assuring that their transactions are charged to the correct department and expense code.
Cardholders may use the card to place an order in person at the supplier site, on a secure site on the internet, over the phone or by fax.
Carleton College is a tax-exempt organization. The college's Minnesota sales tax-exempt identification number has been labeled on each card. The cardholder must give this number to all suppliers at the time of any transaction to exempt payment for Minnesota state sales tax. In the event sales tax is billed to the cardholder's account, it should be rectified directly with the supplier. The cardholder is liable for sales tax they approve for which Carleton is exempt. A copy of the Carleton ST3 exemption is always available on the Business Office's webpage.
Purchasing cards are not transferable. If someone's card use is to be discontinued, their supervisor must contact the Business Office immediately to close their account. Immediately report name changes for a particular cardholder to the college card coordinator so files may be updated and an updated card issued.
Using another employee's purchasing card is not in accordance with the conditions set forth in this policy.
The following individuals are not permitted to have a card:
- courtesy employees (who do not receive a college paycheck)
- employees who have had a card previously revoked. (An employee may regain card use only at the request of their department card coordinator, following review by the Program Administrator.)
- employees not authorized as cardholders by department administration
- untrained employees or employees who have not signed and returned the cardholder agreement form, code of ethics and conflict of interest statement
- employees on personal leave of absence or on sabbatical for more than six months. (Returning nine-month faculty members and those employees planning to return following sabbaticals of six months or less are permitted to retain and use their cards.)
- non-employees, including consultants
- suspended employees
Card Delegation
College cardholders, upon approval from the Program Administrator, may authorize use of their card to any other college employee. This is not a transfer. The card remains in the employee's name, not that of the person delegated; any misuse of the card is the responsibility of the employee. However, the college reserves the right to initiate disciplinary action against a delegated cardholder in the case of misuse, as detailed in the section of this policy on Misuse of the Purchasing Card.
Ultimately, the employee who delegates the card is always responsible for all transactions on his or her card and must sign the monthly cardholder statement.
Card Security
Only authorized cardholders (including delegated users) may use the card. It is the responsibility of every cardholder to safeguard cards and card numbers against use by unauthorized individuals within or outside the college.
Lost/Stolen Cards
Immediately upon discovering that a card has been lost or stolen, a cardholder must report this by phone directly to Wells Fargo (1-800-932-0036) and to the college primary program administrator (x5992). In an emergency, a card will be reissued within two days for a minimal fee to the department. Otherwise the card will be replaced within 5-7 days, at no cost. The college's liability per cardholder is limited to the established restrictions on that particular card. Any charge against the card before it has been reported lost or stolen are the responsibility of the cardholder's department, which will be appropriately charged.
The Fraud Department of Wells Fargo (800-289-3557) will contact the Business Office if they see any suspicious or unusual activity on your card. The card will be placed on a temporary security hold and a Program Administrator will contact the cardholder to verify the validity of the charges.
Within 60 days of the transaction date, a cardholder may dispute a charge that appears on his or her monthly purchasing card statement. If the cardholder does not recognize a charge or it appears to be incorrect, he or she should attempt to work directly with the supplier for resolution. In the event resolution is not made, the cardholder must dispute the charge through the Wells Fargo CCER site.
When Wells Fargo has completed the investigation, the cardholder will be notified of the resolution. If the dispute is not settled in the cardholder's favor, the account will be charged for the disputed transaction amount.
To return an item, the cardholder should contact the supplier of the item for information on how to do a return. Following the supplier's procedures, the item should be returned directly from the cardholder to the supplier and payment adjustment should be agreed upon at that time. Should a discrepancy in charges occur, the cardholder should note the charge as a discrepancy in the reconciliation process and follow the proper procedures for disputing a charge above.
Liabilities of the card remain with the college, rather than the cardholder, for all transactions made in compliance with this purchasing procedures and policy document.
Using a purchasing card, the following transactions are currently prohibited:
- personal purchases and use of Carleton earned frequent buyer points from group travel or student travel for personal purchases
- computer equipment unless with the consent of ITS
- purchases of furniture unless with the consent of Facilities
- personal expressions of gratitude/sympathy in the form of flowers, gifts, birthday cakes, etc.
- cell phones
- gift cards and/or gift certificates
- use of card to buy fuel for personal vehicle
Individuals given purchasing card access by their departments are held accountable for all the transactions related to their card(s), including those transactions made with cards they have delegated to another. Consequences for misuse of the purchasing card are serious.
Misuse of the card can be either personal or administrative. Personal misuse includes, but is not limited to: using the purchasing card for personal (i.e., non-college-related) purchases; use of the purchasing card by a suspended or terminated employee; allowing an unauthorized person to use the card (see the section on Card Delegation for the correct procedure to allow another employee to use your card).
Administrative misuse includes, but is not limited to: lack of proper reconciliation of the cardholder account (see the section on Reconcilements below); card use in direct violation of the purchasing card policies and procedures contained in this document (e.g., neglecting to use the card for commodities available through preferred suppliers; neglecting to perform monthly reviews).
When appropriate, supervisors should attempt informal resolution by bringing the misuse, and consequences of further misuse, to the employee's attention.
If informal resolution is inappropriate or ineffective, the supervisor must contact the Program Administrator. The following consequences of misuse have been established. Not all consequences will be applied to every violation; there are situations that may lead to disciplinary action, including suspension or termination of employment, without following all these steps. The primary program administrator reserves the right to use discretion in applying these guidelines, depending on the type and severity of the specific violation being addressed.
- A formal warning will be delivered to the cardholder by the primary program administrator. The cardholder's immediate supervisor and department card coordinator will also be notified of the violation. In some cases, written notification of misuse may be included in the employee's central personnel file. The reprimand will include a warning for possible card revocation pending further misuse.
- If violations continue after notification of misuse, card use will be revoked. The cardholder's immediate supervisor, the department card coordinator and, in the case of staff, the employee's personnel file will be notified. The employee may regain use of a college card only at the request of the department card coordinator and following review by the primary program administrator.
- Based on the severity of the misuse, the college can decide to initiate disciplinary action, up to and including possible termination and/or legal action.
In addition, in the case of personal purchases repayment of the purchase by the cardholder to the college is required following resolution of the discrepancy. Repayment may be made by cash or check. Payment for this misuse must be made within 10 days following resolution, or appropriate disciplinary measures will ensue. It is the responsibility of the cardholder to ensure that repayment is made for personal items charged to a delegated card.
Cardholders are individually responsible for monthly reconcilements of their purchasing card transactions on CCER, the Wells Fargo website. This website details transactions occurring in the current month, including the transaction date, supplier name, and the amount of the transaction. Review this information for accuracy, correct accounting codes, and add notes to document the business purpose of the transaction. Any exceptions must be resolved on the website.
The cardholder is responsible for all charges on his or her monthly statement, including resolution of charges in error. After final review is completed by the cardholder, all necessary original receipts and packing slips are attached to the printed statement form and signed by the cardholder. The statement and receipts are then forwarded directly to the Approver for their review and initials and then on to the primary program administrator.
Monthly Review and Reporting Timeline
1st – 31st Transactions available for review on the web
1st – 8th Individual cardholder review and changes online; send initialed statement and receipts on to the second review person.
9th-12th Second review person to review charges online and initial statement and receipts to be sent to Business Office.
15th Transactions downloaded into the college financial system.Record Keeping
The cardholder is responsible for keeping all credit card slips, order acknowledgements, cash register receipts, hotel meal receipts, packing slips and other sales records related to any purchase using the card until reconciliation is done. This original documentation is then forwarded with the monthly reconciliation unless the cardholder needs it to resolve a disputed charge. Ultimately, all original documentation must be forwarded to the primary program administrator in the Business Office. Longer term record retention is managed by the Business Office.
Cost Allocation
Each card is tied to one specific account number. Cardholders are responsible for allocation of transactions to the appropriate account numbers. Continued improper designations and/or neglect of proper card transaction allocations are considered administrative misuse of the card. As such, appropriate action will be taken as detailed in the Misusing the Purchasing Card section of this policy.
The cardholder is responsible for ensuring receipt of materials and services and for resolving with the supplier any delivery problems, discrepancies and damaged goods.
Any packing slips, receipts, net zero invoices, along with the credit card statement, must be kept for reconciliation purposes. For telephone or catalog orders, complete shipping instructions must be given along with cardholder name and the desired delivery location (specific building name, room number, etc.). The cardholder should inform the supplier to include the sales receipt (detailing the exemption of taxes) with the package. Save the credit card receipt and shipping documentation, including packing slips, which will be needed for reconciliation.
Renewal cards are sent out automatically by Visa a month before the expiration month.
If, for any reason, a cardholder wishes to cancel their card, the Program Administrator must notified and the card must be cut in half and disposed.
The suspension or termination of a cardholder must be reported directly to the Program Administrator upon official notification of termination. The card should be destroyed and use will be eliminated at the termination date. In the case of termination, the cardholder is responsible for returning the card and for final reconciliation prior to separation.
Audits will be performed periodically to randomly review and audit cardholder activity for compliance with college policy and procedures. Cardholders found not in compliance with these policies and procedures will be subject to those actions contained in the section of this policy on Misusing the Purchasing Card.
Questions concerning this policy or for cardholder assistance, please contact:
Nick Sahli, Primary Program Administrator, x5509
Wells Fargo CCER Log in information available at- https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/business/purchasing_cards/cardprogram/
Vendor Payments
Budget Authorization
Supervisor or Division Head authorization is required for payment requests reimbursed through department funds. The Budget Authorization Grid provides guidance on budget authorizations for cash disbursements and purchase order requests. Accounts Payable will review payment requests to ensure that the appropriate budget authorizations are in place before invoices are paidInvoices/Receipts
Submit itemized original invoices and/or receipts to Accounts Payable for payment.- Invoices and/or receipts received for payment must include proper authorization, a valid Carleton general ledger account number, including a vendor expense code.
- Employee reimbursement requests, not utilizing Faculty PDA funds, require Supervisor or Division Head approval.
- If the business purpose of the transaction is not clearly evident, please include a brief explanation.
New Vendor Set-up
Accounts Payable requires all vendors to have an IRS W-9 on file with the College. The IRS W-9 confirms the vendor's legal company name and taxpayer identification number. Vendor payment will not be made without a W-9 on file. Use the Pilot W-9 Request Form to initiate a secure transfer of the vendor's tax document.Vendors may now receive payment through ACH Direct Deposit, eliminating the need for a paper check. Vendors who would like to receive ACH payments must fill out the Vendor ACH Authorization Form (along with a voided check) and return it to the Carleton College Business Office.
Carleton College
Attn: Accounts Payable
One North College Street
Northfield, MN 55057Note: A W-9 is not required for current students and employees, and prospective students.
Payment Requests
Payment Requests
The Business Office processes payments each week on Thursday. Please allow 7 business days for processing. The deadline to submit requests is 12:00pm Thursday to be included in the following Thursday's check run. Payment will be delayed if Accounts Payable is required to seek additional information or returns a request which does not have adequate support or proper approval.- Payment Request Forms marked "dept. pick-up" are available for pick-up after 3:00 p.m. on Thursday at the Business Office. If a check has not been picked up within one week, the check will be mailed directly to the payee/vendor.
- Payment Request Forms marked "E-Check" will be reimbursed through electronic deposit to the account on record.
- Payment Request Forms marked "US Mail" will be mailed directly to payee/vendor.
Honorariums and Prizes
The IRS requires that all payments for honorariums, prizes, and certain other payments be reported as income to the individual.
An honorarium is a payment that is primarily intended to confer distinction or to symbolize respect, esteem or admiration. Honorariums may be provided to individuals such as guest speakers or presenters who participate in educational events or projects. The IRS classifies honorariums as income and they are subject to taxation. A W-9 form must be on file with Accounts Payable prior to payment. Payment cannot be made prior to services rendered unless otherwise specified in the terms of the agreement.
Guests who request that their honorarium payment be directed to Carleton College or to another charitable organization in lieu of compensation must elect this arrangement prior to providing the service. Contact the Business Office for assistance.
A Prize recognizes performance as part of a judged competition, e.g. best design, highest score, academic achievement, etc. or winnings from a raffle or drawing. Prizes are reportable as taxable income (IRS Form 1099-MISC).
When processing a Payment Request for an honorarium, or prize, a Social Security or Federal ID# and home address must be on record. Information about the event including dates, location and description of activity must also be provided.
Note: Performances for athletes or entertainers living outside Minnesota are subject to 2% State Entertainer Tax withholding.
Payment of honorariums and/or prizes to Foreign Nationals are required to be reported, mandatory tax withholding may apply. Tax withholding may be exempted by applicable tax treaty articles, providing the individual claims the exemption by completing the necessary forms. Please contact Shari Mayer at email@example.com for assistance.
Employee Reimbursements
This policy is intended to be used as a guide for college related entertainment and business expenditures. It supports our belief that all business related expenses for the College should be undertaken in the most economical way consistent with achieving the objectives of the College.
In their regulations, the IRS states that ordinary and necessary business related expenses are deductible and reimbursable. The IRS defines ordinary as "common in your field of trade, business or profession"; and necessary as "helpful and appropriate for your business".
To the greatest extent possible, business expenses of the college should be charged directly to a Carleton College purchasing card or billed directly to the College following the guidance provided in the Purchasing and Travel Policies.
When an employee incurs out-of-pocket expenses in their work for the college, which comply with the Purchasing and Travel Policies, they should submit a Payment Request Form with all appropriate IRS documentation, including original receipts to the Business Office within 60 days of their return to campus. Alternatively, employees may utilize the Wells Fargo Out-of-Pocket (OOP) feature to request reimbursement for business expenditures.
All employee reimbursements are processed as ACH payments to the employee bank account on record with Accounts Payable.
Payment for Services of an Independent Contractor or Consultant
Periodically services are required for a limited or intermittent period of time through an independent contractor/consultant.
Please contact Human Resources before hiring an independent contractor. If an independent contractor does not meet specific qualifications, they may need to be hired as an employee.
All payments for services to independent contractors/consultants must be made directly from Carleton College to insure compliance with all IRS withholding and reporting requirements.
Purchase Orders
Create Requisitions
Create Requisitions is the initial step to procure supplies, services, or equipment within WorkDay.
ALWAYS, check your budget to ensure you have sufficient funds to cover the expenditure.
Requests for Quotations
Price negotiations are always an important consideration, and comparing pricing between vendors is encouraged at any dollar amount. The College tries to match the procurement strategy closely with the specific item being purchased in order to minimize procurement costs while getting the best results. As a general rule, the higher the expenditure, the more care must be taken to plan and execute a careful procurement strategy.
In order to identify environmentally sound products, ask vendors to provide evidence of the post-consumer recyclable waste content and the Energy State compliance information on the product(s) quoted.
Criteria used to evaluate products and/or services include, but are not limited to:
- Performance, specifically including efficiency
- Availability
- Durability
- Reparability
- Natural resource use and waste reduction, including recycled content, transportation and packaging reduction
- Recyclability or biodegradability, including the cost of traditional disposal
- Toxicity
- Purchase Price
The College participates in consortiums to secure preferred pricing. If you are using an E&I http://www.eandi.org/ or ACTC http://www.associatedcolleges-tc.org/jntpurch/contracts.htm) contracts, no additional price checking is required. If you are not using an E&I or ACTC contract, the following guidelines apply. Please attach your quotes in the Create Requisition process in WorkDay:
- Under $1,000: Check one or more prices first
- $1,000<$10,000: Compare two or more prices. Telephone or faxed quotes are acceptable. Grant and FEMA funded contracts over $10,000 will require 2 bids.
- Over $25,000: A formal Request for Proposal or Request for Quotation is required.
- Over $50,000: Construction related work requires a formal Request for Proposal or Invitation for Bid.
- Keep strictly confidential all information and quotations submitted by competing vendors until the purchase award has been made.
The Purchasing & Risk Manager is available to departments who need additional support.
Requirements for a contractor or consultant
Prior to a contractor or consultant performing work or providing service, they must submit the following:
- Insurance Requirements and Indemnification Agreement
- Certificate of Insurance listing Carleton College, it's trustees, officers, faculty, students, employees, and/or agents as additional insured.
Please contact Randie Johnson at 222-4178 for assistance with this process.
Bids and Quotations for Purchases.
It is the policy of the College to obtain competitive bids and price quotations, whenever practical, on all purchase requests for material and equipment purchases. This is accomplished by negotiated pricing agreements, soliciting requests for proposal, and formal bidding procedures. Departments can obtain quotes on their own as part of their decision making process or the Purchasing Department can assist the departments.
Note: For equipment purchases over $10,000 involving Federal funds, completion of the Vendor Selection Form is required.
All vendor bids and quotations are evaluated on the basis of product quality, technical compliance with specifications, total cost, and the vendor's acceptance of the Colleges terms and conditions. Bids should be requested from at least two (2) vendors, whenever possible.
The primary objective of this procedure is to obtain goods and services at the lowest overall cost commensurate with quality and service. As a result the College benefits when suppliers realize they are vying for the award of business and must be competitive in cost and service.
The requirement for competitive quotations depends upon the total cost of goods or services to be procured during the term of the agreement; such cost may be incurred either at one time or over a period of time, as in the case of a lease or rental agreement.
The requirement to obtain competitive quotations may be waived in certain situations such as the following:
Procurement can be made under an existing agreement.
An emergency situation exists.
The price and terms are known to be substantially identical among all suppliers.
The request is for an identical requirement that has been procured recently through the quotation procedure.
The available supply is limited and procurement must be made immediately or an opportunity will be lost.
The vendor is the only vendor in the world who sells the particular item requested.The decision to do so is in the best interests of the College.
DESCRIPTION AND/OR STATEMENT/SCOPE OF WORK (SOW): The item description/statement/scope of work describes the quality and quantity of goods and services required by the College. Quality is determined by our needs. The purpose is to procure those items to suit the intended use at the lowest ultimate cost. Be as specific as possible; cite the specific performance, service, or deliverables that are required. Brand names may be used to establish a baseline comparison, but the words or equal must be included whenever possible and appropriate. A brand name may also be used when it is needed to match existing equipment or the item has been pre-approved as a standard by the College. In this instance "NO SUBSTITUTES" will be accepted.
BID DEPOSITS: When deemed necessary by the Department, bid deposits and/or performance bonds and payment bonds may be required. Unsuccessful bidders will be entitled to return of the deposit after award of bid. Successful bidder's deposit will be returned after satisfactory performance of the bid contract. It has been the policy of the College not to require bid deposits and performance bonds and payment bonds except when necessary. We believe this facilitates and encourages more competition with less cost to the bidders and the College. However bid deposits and performance bonds are required when it is in the best interest of the College such as in construction bids. Payment bonds ensure that our contractors pay their subcontractors.
BID SUBMITTALS: All formal bids must be submitted in a sealed envelope and identified with the following information; BID TITLE, BIDDERS NAME AND ADDRESS, DATE AND TIME OF BID OPENING. Bids may be delivered personally or by mail. It is the sole responsibility of the bidder to have his bid in the office of the Using Department by the date and time designated.
BID OPENINGS: Bids are opened privately by the Using Department after the designated bid opening time.
REJECTION OF BIDS: Read the bids carefully. Any deviation, alteration, or omission in the bid document may disqualify your bid. Read the specifications carefully to ensure all requirements are met. Below is a list of the most common errors found in bid documents.
1. Be sure you have properly signed and provided a seal on ALL required pages.
2. NO ERASURES ARE PERMITTED. If a correction is necessary, draw a single line through the entered figure and enter the corrected figure above it. All corrections (manual, typewriter, or whiteout) MUST BE INITIALED BY THE PERSON SIGNING THE BID. Any illegible entries, pencil bids or corrections not initialed will not be tabulated and will result in disqualification.
BID RECOMMENDATIONS: After all documentation is reviewed, a recommendation is made as to the lowest and best.
AWARD: The Using Department reserves the right to reject any or all bids and to waive any technicalities in bids received. A College purchase order or letter of intent is sent to the vendor awarded the bid. The College purchase order is a binding contract between the College and the Vendor and the bid is by reference made part and parcel of this contract.
Insurance Certificates
If a vendor will be performing any work or service on the Carleton campus, an insurance certificate must be obtained before they begin their work. Insurance is required to protect Carleton in the event of an accident. The vendor would contact their insurance carrier to provide a certificate which complies with current insurance requirements.
Carleton College, it's trustees, officers, faculty, students, employees, and/or agents must be listed as named insured on the certificate.
Legal Contracts
Legal contracts should be reviewed by the Risk Manager. Please refer to the Purchasing Authorizations grid for contract signing authority.
Purchase Orders
The Purchase order is a contract that legally obligates the College when accepted by the Vendor. Purchase Order Terms & Conditions are detailed at https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/business/purchasing_cards/poterms/
Complete the Create Requisition process through WorkDay, including the description, quantity, unit price, estimated cost of each item, and the email where the Purchase Order should be sent. After the approvals have been received the Purchase Order will be issued.
Delivery of Large Purchases
If the shipment is large enough to require a dock, Facilities Services must be notified at 222-4134; advise Facilities when to expect the goods and where to deliver them, and provide a contact person in the event of any problems or questions.
FOB Terms
FOB Origin means that the seller bears the risk until it loads the goods onto an appropriate carrier, after which the buyer assumes risk of loss and must claim against the carrier for damage or loss in-transit. Also, the buyer assumes the cost of freight.
FOB Destination means that the seller bears the risk until the goods are transported to the buyer's dock, after which the risk will pass to the buyer. Also, the seller bears the cost of freight.
Damaged Goods
When your order is received, compare the invoice or packing slip to the purchase order. Open cartons immediately to check for damage. The truck driver can wait until you do this. If you see obvious damage to the carton or goods upon delivery, either refuse the delivery or make note on the bill of lading that goods were damaged. If you accept the shipment and find hidden damage, save the unmarked carton that the product came in and report the damage to the vendor.
Returned Goods Procedure
Occasionally it becomes necessary to return materials ordered because the goods are no longer required, excess material were ordered, or the material, as received, is not acceptable. In order to document the return of goods, the following procedure will be used.
The end user will contact the vendor, negotiate a return, get the returned goods authorization number and set up pick-up of the return materials. The following information may be required by the vendor:
- Purchase Order number
- Reason for return
- Description of item
- Action required (e.g., credit, replacement, or repair)
- No notes written on the box as it must be in condition for re-sale.
If the items will be returned and not replaced, use the Create Return option through WorkDay to document this return.
Recycled Products
The College's commitment to integrating social and environmental responsibility into the educational enterprise extends to all aspects of its affairs, including the purchasing function. As a vital part of this commitment, emphasis is placed on locating and promoting suppliers for products which promote waste reduction, either through the product's recycled content, or through the product's ability to be reused or recycled. Please consider product alternatives containing recycled content when the quality and price are comparable.
As the primary source of paper used in copiers and printers on the Carleton College campus, Printing Services has adopted the policy and practice of filling such orders with uncoated white paper with a minimum of 30% post-consumer recycled content. Use of virgin paper is discouraged; however it will be available for customers who deem it necessary for their work.
Local Vendors, Minority or Women Business Enterprise (MBE/WBE) Vendors and Environmentally Committed Vendors
Carleton College has traditionally supported doing business with local vendors, minority and women owned businesses and vendors who are environmentally committed. Many online ordering sites have icons which help you identify products from these types of vendors. Carleton College encourages all internal departments to include these types of vendors and their products when looking to source a service or commodity.
The use of products and services with less environmental impact will be considered when making purchasing decisions. Factors to review in the life cycle cost analysis are: energy efficiency; shipping materials (returnable, reusable, or made from recycled content; and environmental performance of the supplier/producer (waste reduction, pollution prevention, clean air/water programs, and other initiatives. Our goal is to use vendors that are within 200 miles of us for 27% of our non-travel related purchases.
The College is running a campaign in Rice County to enact policies that will promote the growth of a sustainable and fair agricultural system in our region. Together with members of Food Truth, local foods activists and sustainable farmers around Northfield, we are working to build grassroots pressure and lobby our county commissioners to pass the Local Foods Purchasing Policy and the Organics Conversion Policy.
Green Purchasing Best Practices
Carleton College faculty and staff can contribute to improving the environment by:
Consolidate orders: By increasing the number of items ordered in a single order, you reduce the number of campus deliveries and packaging waste. Our suppliers use fewer shipping cartons shipping cartons.
By reducing the number of deliveries made to your office, you are reducing fuel use, carbon emissions, and traffic congestion. To reduce natural resources consumed by packaging and delivery, please consolidate and coordinate office supply orders each month.
Switch to On-line ordering: Eliminate the need for paper purchase orders, save time, energy, and money.
Make use of electronic catalogs: Saves paper and eliminates the need to dispose of bulky catalogs every year.
Buy items which contain recycled material: Many vendors will have an icon next to an item to indicate whether it is made from recycled materials.
Choose renewable resources: Strive to use raw materials from sustainable and renewable sources.
Opt for the non-hazardous alternative: By purchasing alcohol thermometers as opposed to ones filled with mercury you can lessen disposal costs while removing the potential for a hazardous chemical spill. Likewise the purchase and use of non-toxic cleaning supplies, like those with the Green Seal certification, can improve worker safety by reducing exposure to noxious chemicals.
Look for the most energy efficient model: The US EPA Energy Star program rates and certifies hundreds of energy efficient products. Look for the ENERGY STAR label when you're shopping for items like copy machines, computers, refrigerators, and washing machines. http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductCategory&pcw_code=OEF
ENERGY STAR qualified products work just as well as standard products and will help Carleton reduce its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
Buy locally: It takes fuel to transport goods. Proximity to production not only reduces the energy use required to bring the item to market, it also helps to support the local economy.
Buy only what you need: While it may appear economical to purchase in quantity, the truth is that often the cost to dispose of unused supplies, especially chemicals, far exceeds the original price of purchase.
Spread the word: Recommend your green buy successes to colleagues.
Protective Clothing
Employees who are required as part of their job to wear protective clothing such as safety shoes or boots, safety glasses, hard hats, and/or work gloves, will be reimbursed for the cost of the clothing based on the current limits set by the Facilities Department.
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Three studies from the Temeraire
- Date
- 1998-1999
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas (triptych)
- Dimensions
265 x 761 x 5.6cm installed
a - left panel, 253.5 x 202.5 cm, stretcher
a - left panel, 256.8 x 206 x 5.6 cm, frame
b - centre panel, 261.3 x 202.5 cm, stretcher
b - centre panel, 264.2 x 206 x 5.6 cm, frame
c - right panel, 260.3 x 195.5 cm, stretcher
c - right panel, 263.6 x 198.8 x 5.6 cm, frame
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 2004 with funds provided by the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation, with the assistance of the following major donors: Kerry Packer AC & Roslyn Packer, Jillian Broadbent AO, Peter Weiss AM, Ginny & Leslie Green, Geoff & Vicki Ainsworth, Catriona & Simon Mordant, Susan Rothwell, Ann Corlett, Rowena Danziger AM & Ken Coles AM, Energy Australia, Brian France AM & Philippa France, Chris & Yvonne Gorman, John & Inge Grant, Penelope & Harry Seidler AC OBE, John Symond AM, Isaac & Susan Wakil, and a number of other private individuals
- Location
- North Building, lower level 1
- Accession number
- 239.2004.a-c
- Copyright
- © Cy Twombly Foundation, courtesy Gagosian Gallery, London
- Artist information
Cy Twombly
Works in the collection
- Share
'Three studies from the Temeraire' is an oil on canvas triptych, painted between 1998-99. The history is of special interest, unusual yet evolutionary. In 1998 Twombly was working on three related but at the time independent canvases on three adjacent walls of his Gaeta studio. The theme was these ancient vessels and all the senses of myth and history they inferred - there was originally neither particular thought of Turner, an artist who he had always especially admired, nor of the three panels as a single work. Gradually they coalesced into a single epic event and were shown in the National Gallery in London in the exhibition "Encounters: new art from old" in the year 2000 alongside Turner's famed 'The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838', which was painted in 1839. The theme of this exhibition was 'great artists of our time converse with the greatest artists of all time'... and of course Twombly's pictures assumed their role as contemporary evocations of Turner's 'The Fighting Temeraire'.
Looking at the three canvases together, as a single panorama, there is a potent sense of passage as the ships drift, float and sail into the warm, sensuous but slightly ominous embrace of infinity. There is a strong sense of procession, with the flag-ship bringing up the rear, or maybe they are all images of the same ship, passing into history. This 'dissolving' fleet is a poignant echo of Turner's 'Temeraire' as she is towed by a tugboat to her last resting place in the cooling glows of a fast descending sunset. Both Twombly's and Turner's paintings are dominated by sky and water, indistinguishable in Twombly, but both elements in which things can float. There is too a wonderful correspondence between the emotive reflections in Turner's 'Temeraire' and the dripping lines that that flow from Twombly's apparently doomed ships.
The qualities and sensibilities which echo from Twombly's 'Three studies from the Temeraire' are manifold: the imagery suggests the passage of time, the inevitable end to any voyage, the passage from the present to the past and vice versa. These works imply that continuity of human, cultural and aesthetic experience in which the past is always available, as Twombly so believes. His passing, disappearing fleet may indeed also symbolise that unbroken chord which links classical antiquity with the present.
Twombly's 'Three studies' would never have been inspired as they were, or painted as they were, without Turner's 'Fighting Temeraire', even though they were initiated without any such specific association. Certainly they are far from slavish copies or shallow contemporary imitations. It is likely that Twombly's modern interpretation would confuse a latter-day Turner, however he would have recognised certain qualities - the fascination with the aura of the heroic, the melancholy and beauty of passage, the magic of profound light, the evocation of depth, profundity and mystery.
Cy Twombly was born in 1928 in Lexington, Virginia. In 1948-49 he trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; he then won a Fellowship to the Art Students League in New York where he forged a close association with fellow student, Robert Rauschenberg. They subsequently attended the progressive Black Mountain College in North Carolina where they studied under Robert Motherwell. In 1952 Twombly won a grant to visit Europe and, with Rauschenberg in tow, they travelled extensively returning to New York in 1953. In 1957 Twombly left New York for Rome, virtually for good, although he still returns every year to Lexington for a few months.
By 1960 Twombly was established and much recognised, especially in his new home Italy, but also in New York where his classically-inspired, highly individual and seemingly subjective marks, doodles and lines - moments of experience set against moody rich and absorbent creamy white grounds - were the very antithesis to the then current vogue for Pop Art and Minimalism. If there was any relationship with New York it was his certain affinity with Abstract Expressionism. These often gently convulsive works gradually calmed into the more austere but nervous, and highly distinctive, 'blackboard' pictures distinguished by the 'scribbles' which became an absolute hallmark of Twombly's work.
During the late 1970s and the 1980s Twombly's paintings had a less frenetic sense of pace and energy, and assumed an even more mysterious and contemplative nature. There is a noticeable maturity about these works and an admission of a debt to artists who he particularly admired including Monet and Turner in their mysterious tones and contemplative attitude. He also moved out of Rome to where he presently lives, in the old port town of Gaeta, roughly half way between Rome and Naples.
Exhibition history
Shown in 4 exhibitions
Encounters: new art from old, National Gallery, London, London, 14 Jun 2000–17 Sep 2000
Signs and symbols to live by, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 16 Jun 2016–19 Mar 2017
Some mysterious process, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 01 Jun 2020–13 Sep 2020
Making Worlds, Art Gallery of New South Wales, North Building, Sydney, 03 Dec 2022–2023
Referenced in 11 publications
Donna Brett, Contemporary: Art Gallery of New South Wales Contemporary Collection, 'Expression and the figure', pg.108-153, Sydney, 2006, 150-151 (colour illus.), 432. illustration on pg.151 is a detail
Steve Bush (Editor in Chief), Art World (issue 4), 'Australia's Twombly', pg. 146, Sydney, Aug 2008-Sep 2008, 146 (colour illus.).
Edmund Capon, Look, 'Cy Twombly: a first for Australia in our Gallery collection', pg.20-23, Sydney, Feb 2005, 20, 20-21 (colour illus.), 22, 23.
Betty Churcher, Australian notebooks, 'ART GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES', pg. 45-90, Melbourne, 2014, 73 (illus.), 74-75 (colour illus.), 76 (illus.), 77-78, 255. illustrations on pg. 73 and 76 are pencil sketches of the work
Peter Hill, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Mix 'n' match', pg. 18, Sydney, 15 Jan 2005-16 Jan 2005, 18 (colour illus.). Spectrum supplement of Saturday's edition.
Franklin Kelly, J.M.W. Turner, 'Turner and America', pg.231-246, London, 2007, 245, 246 (illus.). fig.51
John Lyons (Editor), The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Blue Poles II: a modern gem or a load of Pollocks' By Lauren Martin, pg.1, Sydney, 17 Nov 2004, front page (colour illus.).
Lauren Martin, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Twombly buy earns high praise', Sydney, 17 Nov 2004, (colour illus.).
Richard Morphet and Robert Rosenblum, Encounters: new art from old, London, 2000, 286-287 (colour illus.).
Australian museums and galleries', Art and Australia (Vol. 42, No. 4), 'New acquisitions, pg.600-601, Sydney, Jun 2005-Aug 2005, 600 (colour illus.).
Jill Sykes (Editor), Look, 'Members' gallery: the next decade', pg.22-30, Sydney, Jul 2013, 28, 30 (colour illus.).

subset: commoncrawl


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*We see these restored for numerous long tailed pterosaurs, but only Rhamphorhynchus is known, for fact, to have this 'classic' tail vane morphology.
Snap my fish up
What did Rhamphorhynchus eat? At least three specimens suggest that it foraged for fish of various sizes. The most famous example of such a fossil is sometimes referred to as the 'greedy guts Rhamphorhynchus', an animal which swallowed a fish almost as long as its own torso. This specimen represents a smallish individual, first described by Wellnhofer (1975), with a partly articulated, partly digested fish fossil preserved inside the posterior 60% of the rib cage (below). The orientation of the fish tail fin suggests the fish was swallowed head first, and we have to assume that some major distension of the throat occurred when doing so. That pterosaurs were capable of doing this isn't that surprising considering that extant pterosaur relatives - crocodylians and birds - have mobile throats which aid swallowing of big food items. The relative proportions of these gut contents suggests this animal must've bolted its food like these modern archosaurs, a behaviour rare among mammals but known to occur in at least one large, yellow, bipedal primate. This specimen also presents several elongate elements which defy easy explanation: they're suggested as other food items or even bits of preserved gut tissue by various authors (dark grey in the line drawing below).The fossil, interpretive drawing, and restored reality of Jurassic table manners. Disgraceful. Line drawing after Wellnhofer (1975). |
The one, the only, pterosaur coprolite
Of the many questions that keep pterosaur experts up at night - what are they related to? how did they work as functional organisms? how are they related to each other? - none has been greater than what their poop was like. Expelled waste is a common form of fossils in some localities, but remained entirely elusive for flying reptiles until last year when Dave Hone and colleagues (2015) identified the first pterosaur coprolite dropping out of a complete Rhamphorhynchus specimen. Finally, pterosaur workers can sleep easy.Rhamphorhynchus muensteri specimen with coprolite (cp). From Hone et al. (2015). |
Fossilised food chains
Several Rhamphorhynchus specimens reveal it was prey to other Jurassic animals. Among the least commonly discussed is a small pellet produced by something like a fish or crocodylomorph which contains several Rhamphorhynchus wing bones (Schweigert et al. 2001). This is a rare example of Rhamphorhynchus from the Nusplingen Limestone, a unit lithologically similar to Solnhofen but slightly older. As is so often the case with such fossils, the identity of the pellet maker remains elusive. My own suspicions are of a piscine origin, as modern crocodylians don't tend to spit out bones (they digest them, only regurgitating hair, feathers and other keratinous tissues that are difficult to break down). That may not have been true for fossil crocs, of course.Rhamphorhynchus vs. Aspidorhynchus. I guess we should call this one a draw? From Frey and Tischlinger (2012). |
Among the most remarkable Rhamphorhynchus fossils are five instances where it is preserved alongside the predatory fish Aspidorhynchus acutirostris, a long-bodied species that is often much larger than its Rhamphorhynhus prey (Frey and Tischlinger 2012; Weber 2013). These fossils are palaeoecologically notable for three reasons. Firstly, large Solnhofen vertebrates are hardly ever associated, and yet we have five instances of this same pterosaur and fish species being found in touching, or near touching, proximity. Secondly, all five are exquisitely preserved - one example includes a 'mummified' pterosaur with wing membranes, and all are completely articulated. Thirdly, the Rhamphorhynchus are invariably positioned around the skull of the fish, as if a specific, repeated behaviour saw these animals preserved together. These particulars make chance association of these animals unlikely and imply Aspidorhynchus sought out Rhamphorhynchus as food, probably hunting live specimens rather than scavenging floating corpses (as indicated by the excellent preservation of the individual pterosaurs). Frey and Tischlinger (2012) provide a plausible scenario for the deaths of these animals: they reason the Aspidorhynchus tackled prey that became entangled in their jaws before accidentally entering the toxic bottom waters of the Solnhofen waterways. In these anoxic depths the tangled pair would die pretty quickly (if the pterosaur wasn't already dead, of course), leaving us with perfectly preserved bungled predatory acts. The icing on the cake of these specimens is that one of these Rhamphorhynchus specimens has already been mentioned here - that individual with a fish in its throat (Frey and Tischlinger 2012). In this specimen at least, we can assume the pterosaur ate a fish shortly before being attacked itself: a rare instance of a fossil food chain.
The bigger picture of Rhamphorhynchus palaeoecology
Collectively, we have 10 specimens of Rhamphorhynchus telling us something about its position in Mesozoic food webs. That's not bad going for a pterosaur, a famously rare type of fossil, and is actually a pretty good palaeoecological record for any fossil vertebrate. 10 specimens is not enough to tell us everything about the lifestyle of a fossil animal, but does allow us to paint a general picture. They show us that Rhamphorhynchus was adapted to foraging on pelagic prey - often small, probably live fish - and that it must have spent a good amount of time in or around water, as it was clearly an attractant to aquatic predators. These specimens gel neatly with general models of Rhamphorhynchus lifestyle interpreted from their functional anatomy. It's generally thought that Rhamphorhynchus was adapted for life along shorelines - basically a Mesozoic gull. It's not uncommon to be suspicious of such claims nowadays, it being realised that the 'Mesozoic seabird equivalent' almost became a trope, or at least a tremendous over-generalisation, of pre-21st century pterosaur science. But in this case, a gull-like lifestyle is a cogent hypothesis based on studies of wing shape, flight style, tooth and jaw apparatus, and limb function (e.g. Wellnhofer 1975; Hazlehurst and Rayner 1992; Witton 2008, 2015; Ösi 2011). Perhaps research on Rhamphorhynchus was involved in creating the stereotype of pterosaurs as Mesozoic seabirds, but we should not regard it as a victims of this stereotyping itself.But we should ask ourselves why Rhamphorhynchus palaeoecology is comparably well-represented in the fossil record. It might be something as simple as preservational conditions, but there are plenty of pterosaur Lagerstätten, some of them containing close relatives of Rhamphorhynchus in reasonable abundance, which provide no information about dietary preferences or interactions with predatory species. Is there something intrinsic to Rhamphorhynchus which makes it special? I find several reasons to wonder if Rhamphorhynchus was an atypically aquatic species, not only flying and feeding above water but actually routinely entering it. Firstly, Rhamphorhynchus has a hatchet-shaped deltopectoral crest (the process on the humerus which anchors the flight muscles), a small (or at least narrow) torso and short legs: these are features which Habib and Cunningham (2010) link to routine and efficient aquatic takeoff. Secondly, tests of pterosaur swimming suggest that Rhamphorhynchus had a pretty stable floating posture - not something that can be said for all pterosaurs (Hone and Henderson 2014). Thirdly, it also has comparably large but delicately constructed feet, which might suit paddling, as well as a slender set of forelimb bones (Witton 2015) which recall the streamlined arm bones of swimming and diving birds (Habib and Ruff 2008). Prolonged bouts of swimming might also account for its general abundance, excellent preservation and all-round good fossil record: being immersed in water puts it a step closer to being preserved than other, less aquatic species. Who knows: perhaps it even dived into Solnhofen's toxic bottom waters on occasion, explaining why so many specimens are excellently preserved? Hmmm.... perhaps this warrants further investigation.
Coming soon: could dinosaurs - gasp - lie down on their sides? My take on the greatest of palaeoart debates.
Rhamphorhynchus is supported by fish; this blog is supported by Patreon
The paintings and words featured here are sponsored by the finest human beings on the planet, those folks who support me at Patreon. Backing my blog for as little as $1 a month helps me churn out researched and detailed articles and paintings to accompany them, and in return you get access to bonus blog content: additional commentary, in-progress views and high-resolution artwork, and even free prints. Accompanying this post, we're going to look at the bigger picture of pterosaur palaeoecology: azhdarchids and Rhamphorhynchus are just two lineages with palaeoecological records - what about the rest of Pterosauria? Sign up to Patreon to join that discussion!References
- Frey, E., & Tischlinger, H. (2012). The Late Jurassic pterosaur Rhamphorhynchus, a frequent victim of the ganoid fish Aspidorhynchus?. PloS one, 7(3), e31945.
- Habib, M. & Cunningham, J. 2010. Capacity for Water Launch in Anhanguera and Quetzalcoatlus. Acta Geoscientica Sinica. 31, 24-25
- Habib, M. B., & Ruff, C. B. (2008). The effects of locomotion on the structural characteristics of avian limb bones. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 153(3), 601-624.
- Hazlehurst, G. A., & Rayner, J. M. (1992). Flight characteristics of Triassic and Jurassic Pterosauria: an appraisal based on wing shape. Paleobiology, 18(04), 447-463.
- Hone, D. W., Habib, M. B., & Lamanna, M. C. (2013). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of Solnhofen (Upper Jurassic, Germany) pterosaur specimens at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Annals of Carnegie Museum, 82(2), 165-191.
- Hone, D. W., & Henderson, D. M. (2014). The posture of floating pterosaurs: Ecological implications for inhabiting marine and freshwater habitats. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 394, 89-98.
- Hone, D., Henderson, D. M., Therrien, F., & Habib, M. B. (2015). A specimen of Rhamphorhynchus with soft tissue preservation, stomach contents and a putative coprolite. PeerJ, 3, e1191.
- Ősi, A. (2011). Feeding‐related characters in basal pterosaurs: implications for jaw mechanism, dental function and diet. Lethaia, 44(2), 136-152.
- Schweigert, G., Dietl, G. & Wild, R. (2001). Miscellanea aus dem Nusplinger Plattenkalk (Ober-Kimmeridgium, Schwäbische Alb) 3. Ein Speiballen mit Flugsaurierresten. Jahresberichte und Mitteilungen des Oberrheinischen Geologischen Vereines, 83, 357-364
- Weber, F. (2013). Paléoécologie des ptérosaures 3. Les reptiles volants de Solnhofen, Allemagne. Fossiles. 14. 50-59.
- Wellnhofer, P. 1975. Die Rhamphorhynchoidea (Pterosauria) der Oberjura-Plattenkalke Süddeutschlands. Palaeontoographica A, 149, 1-30.
- Witton, M. P. (2008). A new approach to determining pterosaur body mass and its implications for pterosaur flight. Zitteliana, 28, 143-159.
- Witton, M. P. (2015). Were early pterosaurs inept terrestrial locomotors? PeerJ, 3, e1018.


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Relaxed goats' milk standards designed to encourage switch from cows
By KATHRYN FLAGG
ADDISON COUNTY — New fluid goats' milk quality standards ushered in by the Vermont House of Representatives last week will let goat farmers maintain a slightly higher somatic cell count in their herds — a move legislators hope will encourage some conventional dairy farmers to transition from a flagging cows' milk market to more lucrative goats' milk.
The new standards, according to the House Agriculture Committee, will provide more flexibility and economic opportunities for these farmers.
"This is a great opportunity for Vermont farmers who are struggling with low milk prices to transition to another form of farming where prices are lucrative and the demand for the product is high," said Speaker of the House Shap Smith, in a statement.
The bill the House passed sets the somatic cell count limit for grade A raw goat's milk at 2 million cells per milliliter, up from 1 million per milliliter.
Somatic cells are a kind of white blood cell that increases in the presence of pathogens.
In cows, a high somatic cell count usually indicates a sick animal, but in goats, it can mean the animal is still in breeding season or nearing the tail end of the milking season. Some farmers reported having to dump milk that could have otherwise been sold because of high somatic cell counts.
In testimony to the Agriculture Committee, Websterville-based Vermont Butter and Cheese, a proponent of the new legislation, said it has the capacity to process 10 million pounds of goats' milk a year, but currently only processes 4 million. Half of that amount comes from goats out of state.
Conventional bovine milk prices fell nearly 50 percent early this year, dipping to $11 per hundredweight for some farmers, a figure that comes in below the cost of production for most farmers. Meanwhile Vermont Butter and Cheese paid an average of as much as $46 for the same weight of milk over the last year.
But converting from cows' milk to goats' milk is a more daunting prospect than some legislators, and farmers, might realize, according to some local goat farmers.
"There is a really high turnover rate in fluid goat producers," said Hannah Sessions, who runs a Salisbury goat farmer. "I've always thought people are better off with cows."
Sessions, along with her husband Greg Bernhardt, runs the Blue Ledge Farm, where the family milks 65 goats and produces their award-winning goat cheese. They sold fluid goats' milk in 2001 and 2002 while they were building their cheese plant, but Sessions said that fluid milk sales didn't necessarily pay the goats' way.
"Goats are not like cows," she said, noting that there's a widespread misconception that goats are just "little cows," when in fact the animals belong to the deer family and require a different farm environment.
Previously, fluid goats' milk was held to the same standards as cows' milk, despite biological differences between the animals.
Goat farmer Chris Lekberg, who farms in Brandon and sells his milk to Blue Ledge Farm, said that the somatic cell count rules were just one way that state regulations lumped cows and goats into the same category. He thinks the change will ultimately benefit goat farmers.
Sessions, on the other hand, expressed some ambivalence at the change.
"I'm a little discouraged that (the Legislature) feel(s) like they need to change the standards for goat milk to invite people in. If anything, the standards should be maintained," she said.
Higher somatic cell counts could affect higher bacteria counts in milk or raw milk cheese, Sessions said — but she said she could understand why this may not be a problem for larger processors.
"If (farmers are) going to ship to Vermont Butter and Cheese, they're going to pasteurize that milk," she said.
She acknowledged that there's "always more of a market for goat products than there is goats' milk." But Sessions said that production drops significantly when a producer switches from cows' to goats' milk, noting that a decent goat will give about eight pounds of milk in a day.
"You're lucky to get a gallon a day out of a goat," she said.
In addition to using their own goats' milk in their cheese-making operations, Sessions and Bernhardt buy roughly the same amount of goats' milk from Lekberg's farm Brandon. That's unique, Sessions explained — the only major market for fluid goats' milk in Vermont, she said, is Vermont Butter and Cheese.
"They're doing the best that they can to support their producers, but it's definitely challenging. You have to milk a lot of animals," Sessions said.
In the long run, Lekberg said that goat farming has been far more stable than bovine dairy farming.
"I tried dairy cattle in 2002, and the market was terrible," he said. "The thing about goats' milk, and organic dairy farming, is that it doesn't follow the fluctuations of the normal markets for fluid milk. You can make cost-cutting decisions, and still know what your inputs are going to be."
He didn't know if many conventional farmers would consider making the jump to goats in the years ahead, ruefully noting that "a lot of people kind of look down on goats."
Still, he said goats are an option that farmers who are passionate about dairying shouldn't ignore.
"I suppose that for the people who really want to stay in farming and stay in dairying, it's really an option," Lekberg said.


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Destiny of the Shrine MaidenSynopsisThe popular, elegant Chikane becomes friends with Himeko, a shy, timid girl. From early on, they wonder if they may be feeling a little bit more than friendship for each other. But then an evil thing threatens to blow stuff up, and the only people who can combat it are the Moon and Sun priestesses, who happen to be Chikane and Himeko. They then go off on a (sexually-confused) epic fantasy quest to save the Earth! ReviewAwhile back, a friend and I decided that it would be fun to pick a short anime series that we knew nothing about and watch it in one night. Now I'm sure this is still a fun thing to do in most cases. But I'm afraid it's very unfortunate that we chose Destiny of the Shrine Maiden as our first series to do this with. Because right now, I don't feel very up to trying such an experiment again, ever. Why, do you ask? Because Destiny of the Shrine Maiden proved to be a bad anime. A very bad anime. I like mecha, I like fantasy and fantasy heroines, and I like science fiction. However, I should've known that something was up with a series that advertised all of those things at once. Sure, it could work, it has worked, but it usually doesn't. It sure didn't with Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, and the results were disastrous. I did get some mecha, some Victorian fantasy (complete with maids), and some science fiction, all in one series. But the quality of these elements was down the tubes. They put in mecha so that they could sell this to mecha fans, but they didn't really care about the mecha. They put in fantasy so they could sell this to fantasy fans, but they didn't care about that either. Same goes with the sci-fi elements. The result is a series that rips off just about every type of anime fan in existence. The best I can say about this odd mish-mash of genres is that it's the closest thing to a hilarious cross-over that I've ever seen. If anyone dared to produce Macross in Hanaukyo, they would end up with something like this. Overshadowing all of Destiny of the Shrine Maiden's generic shortcomings mentioned above, however, is the most offensive marketing ploy in this basket case of a show. Remember that Destiny of the Shrine Maiden, on top of all the mecha and maids mess, also calls itself a romance anime ... a yuri romance anime. Although I was not prepared for this when I first started the series, I was ready to take the yuri theme and run with it. But they didn't care about the romance element any more than they cared about the other stuff. It's sloppy, forced romance. If it had been completely heterosexual, it would have been sloppy, forced romance, and worthy of the same contempt. Why do they put in such romance? So that they can introduce a load of yuri scenes? Why do they introduce a load of yuri scenes? So that they can they can sell homosexuality as some strange and exotic product; a freak show of sorts. When Destiny of the Shrine Maiden tries to sell mecha, sci-fi, and fantasy in this manner, it is annoying. When they begin doing it with lesbianism, it becomes EXTREMELY offensive. Because such exploitation was the main priority of this show, among all the other wily tricks up it's sleeve, it sinks to the lowest levels of "entertainment" as far as I'm concerned. The whole thing is really a way to make money off of lesbianism, while pulling in every other type of fan it can at the same time. Not only is that against my principles of why anime (or any product) should be created, but it's just not entertaining to watch, period. One last thing to mention is that, despite the clashing genres displayed on the front design, the advertisement art did manage to trick me into thinking that the visuals of this series would be very good. Well, the old trickster got me again. This series looks horrible, like a totally average series from the mid-90s. This is totally unacceptable, considering they probably did the entire thing on a computer, and could've at least made it look better than Gainax's super-low-budget stuff from the 90s. But they didn't manage to do this, and it shows. Backgrounds are bland, and characters are very pointy and plain. That's just one little morsel to add to the top of this heaping pile of junk. If you like awkward lesbian romances, lesbian-lesbian-mechademon love triangles, or unexciting lesbian fan service, then you will thoroughly enjoy this series. If you like awkward lesbian romances, lesbian-lesbian-mechademon love triangles, or unexciting lesbian fan service, then you really need to get out more. — Connor Recommended Audience: Nobody really. Anybody who'd actually enjoy this exploitation needs to get their head examined. However, if for some reason you're actually considering watching this thing, you have to be prepared for a whole bunch of lesbian scenes. So know what you can handle and what you can't. And these themes get pretty maturely sexual later on, from what I've heard. Pair that with some spastic violence and destruction, and nobody under 15 should really be watching this. But as I said, no one still ALIVE should be watching this. Version(s) Viewed: digital source Review Status: Partial (4/12) Destiny of the Shrine Maiden © 2004 Kaishaku / Kannazuki no Miko Committee |
© 1996-2015 THEM Anime Reviews. All rights reserved. |


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Stem cell ageing and regenerative engineering
Development of solutions for regeneration of ageing stem cells
Focus on building knowledge and developing techniques for slowing down stem cell depletion and loss of function in the human body.
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A problem I am occasionally facing is to simplify an equation not to it's shortest form but to a form that is simple by other means. Often, this is grouping the term according to certain functions, for example exponential functions from a Fourier series.
For example,
1 Exp[i k t] + 2 x Exp[i k t] + (2 x + 1) Exp[i k t]^2 // Simplify
will give E^(i k t) (1 + E^(i k t)) (1 + 2 x)
. Instead,
(2 x + 1) Exp[i k t] + (2 x + 1) Exp[i 2 k t]
is often desired.
Is there any simple[1] way to achieve that?
[1] I once achieved that using the FourierTransform
and replacing the DiracDelta
with 1 or 0 to get the coefficients, but that is neither elegant nor always possible.


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CHICAGO — If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Chicago's handgun ban, the city will likely do what Washington, D.C., did when its own ban was overturned two years ago: Put in place all sorts of restrictions to make it tougher to buy guns and easier for police to know who has them.
Prospective gun owners in D.C. now are required to take training courses that include spending one hour on a firing range and several hours in a classroom learning about gun safety. They also must pass a 20 question test based on D.C.'s firearm laws.
The Skanner News video click here
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he's encouraged by what he sees in D.C. and vows not go down without a fight.
"We're not going to roll over," Daley told The Associated Press.
While he and city officials would not say specifically what plans they have in mind if the Supreme Court rules against the city next week, observers say that a ruling favorable to Chicago gun rights supporters will lead to a new round of legislation — and lawsuits.
"Just like they did in Washington, D.C., the city of Chicago is going to try to make it as difficult and discouraging as humanly possible to keep people from having guns in their homes for personal protection," said Dave Workman, spokesman for the Bellevue, Wa.-based Second Amendment Foundation.
Since the ban was lifted in D.C., just over 800 guns have been registered in city. The relatively low total comes as the district passed the slew of new requirements that also include being fingerprinted and taking ballistic tests, which could help police track bullets back to specific guns if needed.
"The Supreme Court tore down the wall, and D.C. built up 95 percent of it again," said Richard Gardiner, who is suing the district over the new laws on behalf of Dick Heller, the plaintiff in the original case.
Daley is one of the nation's most vocal gun control advocates, and has a reputation for wielding his power. And he has a reason to stay tough: while the city's murder rate has dropped in recent years, but it is still one of the highest in the country.
Washington, D.C.'s police chief, Cathy Lanier, said the city has "yet to have a case where someone was about to be the victim of a crime where someone pulled a handgun and saved themselves." However, that isn't the case in Chicago, and many say that could provide the motivation for more people to purchase guns if a ban is lifted.
In May, a retired police officer shot two men, one fatally, after, police say, the men gunned down his son during the theft of his motorcycle. Days later, an 80-year-old Korean War veteran shot and killed a burglar who'd broken into his West Side home after the armed intruder had fired his gun at the man and missed, relatives said.
Not lost on Chicago residents is the fact that the elderly man shot the intruder with an illegal gun and the reason the other man could legally own a gun was because he was a retired Chicago police officer.
"If (the elderly man) didn't have that gun ... all of them would have been dead," said Charlene Figgins, 50, who lives nearby. "That's the bottom line."
Daley counters such talk by pointing to other cases, including one in which a suburban Chicago man shot and killed a neighbor because the neighbor's dog urinated on his lawn, as examples of the dangers of handguns in the home. But he said he and others expect gun advocates and manufacturers to capitalize on the shooting involving the 80-year-old man.
"People will begin to think that since you had a couple high profile cases, they might think (buying a handgun) might be a good thing," said Tio Hardiman, a spokesman for CeaseFire, an anti-violence program in the city. "They don't know if they're going to be the next victim or not."
Lanier, D.C.'s police chief, said she believes getting rid of the ban has not had an effect on crime. The number of accidental shootings in homes, domestic violence shootings and suicides did not go up as a result, she said. Nor, she said, has the homicide rate gone down as a result of lifting the ban, a frequent claim by gun rights advocates.
"I just hope that there's not a thought that allowing people to legally register guns is going to have a big impact on crime," she said. "It certainly hasn't here."
If the court reverses the ban, Chicago most likely will create a weapons registry and make that information available to police, firefighters and others who respond to emergencies. Gardiner said the pending lawsuit he filed is fighting a similar registry in D.C.
The city is also thinking about requiring anyone who purchases a gun to also buy insurance — a step Gardiner said D.C. didn't take. But, Daley said, "It's common sense."
Then there are the gun shops. Though they are legal now in D.C., none have opened, in large part because the city implemented regulations both on store owners and buyers.
In Chicago, one owner of a suburban gun store said the city would hit anyone who tried to set up shop in the city with a flood of regulations and mountains of paperwork.
"It would be a legal nightmare," said Noel Incavo, of Midwest Sporting Goods.
There's also the possibility the city won't bother with all that.
"We could seek to draft an ordinance that would ban gun shops in the city of Chicago," Mara Georges, Chicago's corporation counsel, said.
Gresko reported from Washington, D.C.


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International Society for Music Education
Welcome to ISME's website! ISME is a worldwide organisation that seeks to celebrate the diverse ways that people engage with, and develop in and through, music. Founded in 1953, ISME represents an international, interdisciplinary, intercultural network of professionals who strive to understand and promote music learning across the lifespan. We share a commitment to culture, education, conservation and the durable development of our cultural heritage, and to evidence-based policy and practice.


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- Home
- Permits & Registration
- Civil Penalties
Civil Penalties
The Agency is authorized by the state Clean Air Act (Act) to issue civil penalties to individuals and companies who violate the Act or the Agency's regulations. In addition, there is information about civil penalties in Agency Regulation I, Sections 3.09 and 3.11.
Responding to Civil Penalties
If you received a civil penalty from the agency, you must respond within thirty (30) days. Failure to respond may result in agency action in superior court to recover the penalty.
There are a variety of ways to respond to a civil penalty.
Ask the Agency to Review Your Case (Request Mitigation)
If you have new information for the agency to consider, you may request mitigation. To request mitigation:
- Submit your request in writing to the agency via mail, e-mail, or fax within 30 days of receiving the penalty; and
- Include a copy of the penalty and explain the information you want the agency to review.
- If you would like to schedule a meeting or telephone call with the agency to discuss your case, please include that in your request.
In about 4 to 8 weeks, the agency will send you a letter with the results of its review of your case. The letter will describe your next options, which include appealing or paying the civil penalty. The agency may also make a settlement offer to you after reviewing your case. You can still file an appeal after the mitigation process is completed.
For assistance please contact us by email.
Accept the Proposed Settlement Agreement (if one has been offered)
If you agree to the terms of the proposed Settlement Agreement:
- Sign and date the Settlement Agreement
- Return it to the agency via mail, e-mail, or fax within 30 days
- Comply with the Settlement Agreement
For assistance please email us.
Pay the Penalty in Full
If you wish to pay the civil penalty, you can:
- Call the agency finance department at 206-689-4014 to make a payment by credit card over the phone; or
- Send a check to the agency (write the penalty number on your check)
For assistance please email us.
Appeal the Penalty to the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB)
The PCHB hears appeals of civil penalties issued by the agency. The PCHB's function is to provide you a full and complete administrative hearing, as promptly as possible, followed by a fair and impartial written decision based on the facts and law. The PCHB is independent and is not part of the agency.
Appeals of civil penalties must be sent to the PCHB and copied to the agency within 30 days of your receipt of the penalty. For assistance or more information about how to file an appeal and what to expect from the appeal process, please contact the PCHB by:
- Postal Mail: Pollution Control Hearings Board
PO Box 40903
Olympia, WA 98504-0903 - Phone: 360-664-9160
- Fax: 360-586-2253
- Email:Email PCHB
- Website:Visit the ELUHO Website


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- Home
- City Government
- Departments
- Cemetery
- Cemetery Tours
Cemetery Tours
Cemetery Hours
The cemetery is open from 7 a.m. until dusk. The gates are locked at the end of the day, so plan your visit accordingly.
Shelter House which serves as Office for Natchez City Cemetery
Touring Options
There are several ways to tour the Natchez City Cemetery:
- On your own - CDs to guide your individual tour are available at the NCC Office or at the Natchez Visitor Reception Center
- Private guided tour - contact Natchez Pilgrimage Tours for information.
- Annual Angels on the Bluff Tour (on specific dates in the month of November)
Please observe our cemetery etiquette while visiting the cemetery.
Individual Tour:
Everyone is welcome to tour the cemetery at his or her leisure. You can drive along the roads in the cemetery viewing from you car, or you may wish to walk among the tombstones. For drivers we would like to point out that if you enter through the main gate you will be entering the historic area.
If you enter the main gate, which is the third gate coming from town, you will see the cemetery office building, which has a wooden mailbox on the porch that contains free brochures that include a map that highlights interesting stops.
A guide booklet for visitors with a reference map enclosed, points out the historical sections of the cemetery and includes pictures of some of the more requested grave locations along with short remarks about them. These booklets are available at the Shelter House, the Natchez Visitor Center and various shops around town.
Another tool to assist in a tour of the cemetery is an audio CD that will direct the tour from one point to another while giving information about the stops along the way. The CD is available at the Shelter Hourse and at the Natchez Visitor Center.
Private Guided Tour:
For those who would like to have a private guided tour please call 601-446-6631 or toll free 800-647-6742.


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Actual stuff to talk about! Tonight featuring correct capitalization! (WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?)
I recently started reading The Eight-Step Home Cure. I've been trying to get a handle on the clutter (an ongoing struggle for me) and disorganization (same) but also my unhealthy habits with money. I'm working with some pros on all this, but this book is helping me too.
Last week was week one and had a mix of mental and physical tasks:
- Make a complete list of repairs and solutions. Repairs needed all over the house, the kinds of things that one might note when renting a new apartment. And solutions for each of those. I got through the list of repairs but am still working on filling in the solutions.
- Vacuum the floors. DONE. We have someone who comes and cleans the house each week, and she had just vacuumed and mopped most of the floors, but I kept in the spirit of the task (which is to become more intimately familiar with the house and its flow) by using a Swiffer throughout the rooms.
- Mop the floors. DONE. Well, Melanie (the cleaning person) did the mopping, but I kept in the spirit of the task with the sweeping.
- Remove one item from the house and put it outside. DONE. The main goal with this task is to break the seal on getting rid of stuff if you have a hard time with that. Another goal is to signal to the world that you are freeing your home of stuff. Or something like that. Anyway, I had a mannequin that had been just leaning against a wall for years, ever since I bought it at an estate sale in Squirrel Hill. So out she went, and someone took her the next day.
- Buy fresh flowers. DONE Wednesday. This is the easiest one, and that's good because it's supposed to go on every week. I pick up groceries at Whole Foods each week, and there are always tons of beautiful fresh flowers near the customer-service desk where I pick them up and pay for them. This week, I chose some gorgeous ranunculus. Vibrantly pink, which is unlike me, but ranunculus always suck me in. Just gorgeous. I cut the stems and put them in water in a mason jar, and I've thinned out the stems and foliage once. I also printed out instructions for a simple solution for water for longer-lasting flowers. This one has me excited, if you can't tell.
- Sit for ten minutes in a part of your home in which you never sit. Weirdly, this was the one that I took the longest to get to. Today I worked in the dining room all day (more on that in a moment), so that was way more than ten minutes.
- Look into earth-friendly cleaning products. DONE. Mostly. I stocked up at Whole Foods Wednesday, but I might have forgotten some category or other. I bought basically the whole Method line of cleaning products.
So this is week two of the cure, in which I focus on the kitchen. This week's tasks?
- Clear space for an outbox (a space in the home where I can stow things I'm thinking of getting rid of). DONE today.
- Clear one surface and use the outbox. DONE today. Cleared many surfaces, actually, all over the kitchen. Check out this kitchen island! (the stuff on it is just tonight's dinner and the recipe, plus the flowers from last week and the cutting boards, which have no other home, at least yet.)
- Clean your kitchen from top to bottom, and throw away old food. Buy a water filter and use it. IN PROGRESS. I went through all the exposed surfaces (a couple of bookshelves and the kitchen island and countertops) and the upper cabinets to find anything that I could discard.
I put a bunch of stuff in the outbox
and started a Google Sheets list of most of it and shared it with local friends to see whether anyone wanted anything. My main goal is to get rid of the stuff, so I'm keeping that really simple. Not chasing down new homes for anything, just setting aside stuff if someone wants it. And it feels good to see some of this help someone out. As for the water filter, Mr. Bee researched this a year or so ago and determined that a reverse-osmosis filter is really the only kind that would be worth having, for us at least, and is actually really wasteful of water. So we're sticking with unfiltered tap water for everything except drinking, and he buys cases of bottled water at Costco for drinking. - Fix one thing in your house yourself. I'm not positive what this will be. If assembling something counts (I have lots of those on the list), then that's what I'll be doing--probably assembling the dress form that Annette gave me. That's something that I wrote down as an obstacle to last week's sweeping chore, blocking the flow, because it's just sitting on the floor in the way. So that's probably what this one will be.
- Run your hands over every wall in your house. This is another become-intimate-with-your-space thing. The author uses a very cool image: Imagine that you're touching the skin of a whale and your house is this living, breathing thing. I love that. Especially because almost all of our walls are blue :)
- Buy fresh flowers (this is going to be a weekly thing, every week when I pick up the groceries). Determine your style. DONE. Turns out I like something called "organic modern," which incorporates the clean lines and humor of modern style but the wood and other materials of Asian and other organic styles.
- Find a new recipe and cook one meal at home. DONE. I cook from a new recipe five nights a week. Tonight I made carne asada.
Choose the date for your housewarming. Haven't done this yet. Eight weeks from the start is the first week in June, but I might wait a few weeks. Also? We've been in this house for ten years this month. Is a housewarming really appropriate?
So that's what's happening Chez Bee. I'm having a blast with it, even though it's really time- and energy-consuming. Today what I did was work in the dining room, which is where the outbox is and next to the kitchen. I used the pomodoro timer in my current task-management app, KanbanFlow, which sets up 25 minutes of work then a five-minute break, but with a 15-minute break every fourth break. During each break, I'd get up and do another bit of the kitchen clearing. It worked out really well for my productivity both for work and for the home cure. A++ would try again.


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Sharepoint 2010. Our IT guys have recently renamed many Active Directory security groups, however PeoplePicker appears to now display both the old name and new name in results. I assume the new name is coming directly from AD, but the old name is coming from the sharepoint content database UserInfo table. Additionally, if we assign permissions to one of the 2 returned results, when next searching for the same group, sharepoint appears to have merged the information for the 2 groups together and so only one result is returned. However, it is keeping the old (incorrect) "title" rather than the new one.
I'm wondering if anyone has any solutions for this issue? I know I can locate the "group" in Site Settings > People and Groups, and click "Delete user from Site Collection", but then I will lose any permissions set for this group within my sharepoint site. Any help would be appreciated!


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Chaos;HEAdSynopsisTakumi is a despicable otaku. He lives by himself, skipping school to play MMORPGs and obsess over anime all day long. He's never really lonely- his imaginary girlfirend, a magical girl named Seiru, keeps him company, telling him over and over that his lifestyle is the best for him. "Nobody understands you but me. You don't need anybody else." His only contact with his family and the outside world is his little sister, who seems concerned over her onii-chan's slippery grip on reality. As he immerses himself further into the 2D world, she's is losing hope that he will ever grow up. But while surfing the Net, Takumi is sent a link from a stranger on the Internet. The link has pictures of a gruesome murder in an alley, with the stranger telling him this is part of recent chain of serial killings. Takumi doesn't believe the stranger, since no one on the Net or on TV has reported the killing. Takumi assumes the pictures are a practical joke... until he stumbles across a young school girl killing a man in a dark alley just as the photos pictured. He manages to escape, but now he's convinced that a conspiracy is out to get him. Pretty girls from school and elsewhere have started to take an interest in him... and one of them look exactly like the murderer. ReviewThere's a small number of things I like to see in anything I watch. I want good characters, a smart script, and an interesting plot. I also like seeing something ambitious, something that's different or tries to give an opinion on some social ill. On the face of it, Chaos;Head looks like that kind of show. It's based on an innovative Japanese visual novel. It's animated by Madhouse, who is still one of the best studios around. And the plot sounds like another Welcome to the NHK or Ressenitment; something that takes a hard look at the seedy side of otakudom. And maybe Chaos;Head wanted to be all of these things. But it's so boring, so convoluted, and so confusing that any impact its characters and story could have had is lost in the clumsy execution. It started out fine. Takumi is an interesting bloke- a guy who is so out of touch with reality that he complains to his delusion that he's suffering from delusions. He's a dirty, ugly son of a gun with no apparent social life, and no real interest in one. But he's a good character. Some people have the mistaken impression that character needs to be likable or heroic to be "good," but that ain't necessarily so. They just need to be interesting, and like other characters- Yu Goto from Noein and Light from Death Note come to mind- Takumi is a fascinating basket case who can carry the entire anime by himself. Or at least for the first three episodes, because things get out of hand very quickly. Takumi already clearly suffers from delusions, which throws into question how real anything we're seeing is. The story starts off precariously balanced, because we never get a clear idea of how much we're being told is actually true. In the hands of a hack director, this could easily devolve into a real mess. Who'd you say directed this? Takaaki Ishiyama? Never heard of him. What other anime has he done? ... Spider Riders, you say? Sakura Wars? Viewtiful Joe? Oh crap. We are so screwed. The problem with Chaos;Head is that every time it tries to up the ante, it only creates more confusion. A common misconception about suspense is that it means to keep the viewers in the dark. But nearly the opposite is true- you explain just enough of the mystery to keep things interesting. The narration should be a guide, not a riddler. Chaos;Head doesn't guide the viewer at all- it stumbles from one weird mystery to another, and then another, and then another. It creates an ungainly tower of half-baked enigmas that have little explanation beyond that Takumi is a very screwed up kid who might be a very screwed up city's only hope. And when the anime does try to explain much of anything, it starts coming off as a really boring Oshii wannabe whose only experience with philosophy are repeated viewings of The Matrix. I don't think it's clear to even the scriptwriter what the hell was going on. And whereas Oshii's musings are usually accompanied to beautiful imagery, the animation in Chaos;Head is stale from beginning to end. It's a black mark on Madhouse's usually stellar record. Later on in the series, we finally see some guidance. Apparently a lot of the mystery comes back to an evil corporation- doesn't it always?- that has been experimenting with virtual reality technology. The story seems to be getting to an old cliche: the world that everyone sees isn't real and only a few gifted people can see through the lies and thereby save humanity. If that's how it turns out, it would be a big disappointment that something that seemed so ambitious would end with something so stale. "Well," you ask, "why don't you just watch the rest and see if it does?" Because after eight episodes of growing confusion and frustration, it's clear that I can find plenty of better ways to spend two hours. His head's in chaos? What about my head? — Bradley Meek Recommended Audience: Some violence and creepiness means this is a best fit for teenagers and up. Version(s) Viewed: Prelease digital source Review Status: Partial (8/12) Chaos;HEAd © 2008 Madhouse Studios, IMAGIN Entertainment, Nitroplus, The 5pb. |
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